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Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Unravelling of landmine treaty a ‘major challenge to arms control'
Plans by several European countries to leave a major landmine treaty represent 'one of the most significant challenges to global arms control in decades,' the head of the world's largest demining charity has said. Writing in The Telegraph, Major General James Cowan, the CEO of the Halo Trust, said: 'After decades of protection by America, Europeans are now planning for their own defence of the continent.' But he added: 'While most weapons are used in the moment, landmines lie in the ground killing and maiming long after the war has ended.' Finland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have all either left or announced plans to leave the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, better known as the Ottawa Treaty, in recent weeks in an effort to shore up their defences and deter neighbouring Russia from invading. Their decisions have upended decades of consensus regarding the use of anti-personnel mines in Europe, and raised questions over the effectiveness of bans on other kinds of weapons. While the Halo Trust is dedicated to removing landmines, working in dozens of countries around the world including Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, Maj Gen Cowan was pragmatic about the decisions made by those countries bordering Russia. 'I'm very strongly in favour of the treaty and improving it, not abandoning it,' he told The Telegraph. 'The concern is those frontline states, and we've got to find a way to make it possible for them to not feel threatened, that their democracy, their sovereignty, can be protected, but also that this incredibly successful treaty is not abandoned,' he added. 'Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.' Other demining charities The Telegraph spoke to were similarly sympathetic to the security concerns of countries bordering Russia. 'We recognise there are no easy choices when a state feels under threat of armed aggression,' said Riccardo Labianco, an international policy manager for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), another major UK-based charity. 'But International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including the Ottawa Convention, is designed precisely for times like these. 'For decades, military and humanitarian experts alike, have agreed, with evidence, that landmines are so dangerous for civilians that the only good choice is to never use them.' The Ottawa Treaty was hailed as a breakthrough in efforts to eradicate the use of anti-personnel mines – smaller mines designed to kill people rather than blow up vehicles. Since it was signed in 1997, 164 countries have ratified or acceded to it. Jody Williams, who in 1997 became one of only 12 women ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize for leading the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), warned that the departure of several European countries from the treaty could spur others to leave. 'With a handful of countries leaving, it makes it easier for others to think about it too,' she told The Telegraph. 'Couple that with all the mines being used by both sides with Putin's invasion of Ukraine and [Elon] Musk's slashing of foreign aid money, which includes support for mine clearance operations, and things look bleak in that part of the world.' Mr Labianco echoed Ms Williams's concerns about the potential proliferation of landmines, noting that 'the Ottawa Convention has had a role in tackling the global circulation of these weapons, preventing their acquisition by irresponsible actors and entities'. Despite the setback to arms control efforts, there is hope that the countries leaving the treaty will use landmines responsibly. Announcing Finland's decision, Alexander Stubb, the country's president, said the move was 'based on a thorough assessment by the relevant ministries and the Defence Forces. 'Finland is committed to its international obligations on the responsible use of mines,' he said. Keir Giles, a Senior Consulting Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at the Chatham House think tank, said: 'There's a huge difference between weapons like landmines and cluster munitions when they are used and deployed by responsible countries that are governed by international humanitarian law, or when they used by countries like Russia.' Anti-personnel mines, if they are used, will be deployed as part of a complex system of defences including trenches, natural barriers like forests and rivers, as well as fortifications like the 'dragon's teeth' obstacles seen in Ukraine. The way they are used will differ from country to country, Mr Giles said, noting that the Baltic states, due to their small size, 'need to defend all of their territory, because as soon as they run out of space, they're out of time'. Even the demining charities are sanguine about developments in technology that could reduce the risks associated with the weapons. Newer landmines can be detonated or deactivated remotely, said Maj Gen Cowan, making them much easier to remove and control than older 'dumb' weapons, that 'stay in the ground, meant to kill a soldier, but actually it will kill a civilian, a child, decades after the event'. 'The Americans, with the mines that they gave to Ukraine in November, stated that the mines they had given can do that,' he said. 'So the technology is emerging that allows that to happen, and we need to have a conversation about what technology could keep the treaty current, live and still meeting its humanitarian remit.' Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The National
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The National
Nato's eastern flank lifts landmine ban to face Russia threat
Four European states are backing out of a ban on landmines due to the rising threat from Russia. Anti-personnel mines, which are designed for use against humans rather than vehicles such as tanks, are banned by most countries under a 1997 treaty championed by the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Algeria leads efforts to keep curbs in place. But some military heavyweights, including the US and Russia, have never signed up, and the return of war in Europe has prompted a rethink. Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have announced plans to quit the treaty to allow their militaries to use 'every necessary measure' to defend themselves from Moscow. 'It is not right that we are prohibiting ourselves from using weapons that Russia is prepared to use against us,' Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. A joint statement by the four countries says they face 'dire security challenges' that mean their armed forces need 'flexibility and freedom of choice' to develop new weapons. They said they would still respect the wider laws of armed conflict, such as rules on protecting civilians. The UN has reported an 'industrial use' of landmines during the war in Ukraine on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Kyiv was given landmines by former US president Joe Biden's administration in a 'limited exception' from American policy, and accuses Russia of contaminating large swathes of land with explosives. European states are ramping up their defences for fear that Russia will attack Nato territory and that President Donald Trump's America will not be a reliable ally. Germany embarked on a historic shift of its own on Tuesday by voting through more than $500 billion in borrowing to rebuild its military and infrastructure. The Halo Trust, a mine clearance charity that worked with Princess Diana in the 1990s, said on Tuesday that the treaty had been 'instrumental in saving millions of people's lives'. It said states should still put money towards landmine clearance even if they do not uphold the ban. The trust acknowledged that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had 'created a new reality' for the defence of Europe. It said that 'outside of eastern Europe the treaty will remain the bedrock of efforts to save civilian lives'. In addition to Ukraine, landmines have recently been used in North Korea and Myanmar with a 'direct, brutal impact' that could persist for decades, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said last week. It said withdrawing from the treaty would 'send the wrong signal at the worst possible time, aligning these countries with those who seek to weaken international norms'. Countries will vote this month on a UN motion urging them to 'reinforce and enhance' their commitment to the mine ban. The push is being led by Algeria which says the world should keep aiming for a 'mine-free world'. Rachid Bladehane, Algeria's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the country's experience was shaped by French colonial mines left over from the 1950s war of independence. He told diplomats that Algeria was an 'outstanding example' of anti-landmine efforts after it was declared mine-free in 2017. 'This draft resolution is a timely push in favour of our ultimate goal of a mine-free world and safer future for the generations to come,' Mr Bladehane said. He said the motion backed by Britain, South Africa and four others came at a 'very critical juncture, characterised by serious and unprecedented threats and blatant attempts to draw back from the very significant achievements in this area'. More than 160 countries have signed up to the mine ban treaty, including nuclear-armed states Britain and France. They agreed they would 'never under any circumstances' develop or use anti-personnel mines and committed to destroying existing stockpiles. As well as the US and Russia, China has not signed up. The text of the Algeria-backed motion says states should consider ratifying the treaty if they have not done so, and should make 'co-ordinated efforts' to help survivors of landmine explosions. However, the text has been watered down to remove a line urging states to 'accelerate de-mining efforts and destruction of stockpiled anti-personnel mines'. A passage encouraging other states to join the treaty 'without delay' has also been softened.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Landmines in Syria kill hundreds of civilians returning home after fall of Assad
More than 200 people, including women and children, have been killed in Syria in incidents involving war remnants in the three months since the fall of the Assad regime, as bomb disposal experts warn that 'no area in Syria is safe'. The number of casualties has risen as approximately 1.2 million people return to their former homes and lands after being displaced by the country's brutal civil war. Thousands of landmines and unexploded shells and munitions are scattered across the country in major cities and rural areas that witnessed military operations and bombings over 14 years. As families return to their homes, accidental contact is killing hundreds. Children are particularly vulnerable to cluster munitions, sometimes mistaking them for toys. By last week, 640 people had been killed or injured, according to the world's largest land mine charity, the Halo Trust. An earlier UN report had found that a third of the victims were children. 'We cannot say that any area in Syria is safe from war remnants,' said Mohammed Sami Al Mohammed, mine action programme coordinator for the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, an NGO funded by governments and development organisations. Mohammed said it would take decades to remove the mines and make Syria safe. 'There are countries where wars ended 40 years ago, yet they are still unable to completely eliminate this danger. The matter is not that simple and what happened in Syria is far more devastating than what occurred in other places.' Volunteers have been helping to try to clear people's land to make it safe for them to return, but tragically have also been losing their own lives as a consequence. Since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year, Fahd al-Ghajar, 35, had been regularly posting pictures on Facebook showcasing his dangerous work clearing mines in various locations across Syria. In one of his posts, he expressed pride in removing mines from farmland used for grazing livestock, captioning it: 'The most beautiful thing is the end.' In February, Ghajar wrote about the death of one of his colleagues, saying: 'Syria is free, but we, the engineering team, lose someone every day. In the end, we are all dead; what matters is to clean the country.' On 21 February, Ghajar was killed by a landmine explosion while demining a farm in northern Syria. He had successfully cleared the house, but a mine detonated while he was inspecting the field, killing him instantly, said his brother Abduljabbar Alghajar. Ghajar, who was married with four children, had learned how to plant and remove mines while working for the Syrian army prior to the start of the civil war in 2011, after which he left and joined the opposition movement seeking to bring an end to the Assad regime. 'He sacrificed himself so that others could live,' said Alghajar, who remembered him often saying: 'The country has been liberated, and we, the engineering specialists, must stand by these people and remove the mines to help them return to their homes.'
The National
26-02-2025
- The National
'Planted with death': Syrians still losing lives to mines in Palmyra
The day after Bashar Al Assad's regime fell in December, Mohammed Al Sghir went back to check on his family home in the Syrian desert city of Palmyra, alongside his uncle, a family friend and four children. As the 43-year-old father of three entered the building, it exploded. He and the two other men were killed as mines detonated under their feet. 'The house was planted with all kinds of death. It was an enormous explosion, it rang out across Palmyra,' said Mohammed's brother, Muthanna, 40, who had gone to pray at the time. The children – two of Mohammed's own and two of his nieces and nephews – had remained in the car outside, so were spared, but were covered in dust from the explosion. 'The children were in the street, and they were the ones who got the news out. I ran to the house, it was absolutely awful,' Muthanna, whose family was displaced to Idlib province from their home city around nine years ago, told The National. 'That house was the love of my father's life, he put everything into it. And in one moment, it was all gone,' Muthanna said, beginning to cry. Mines are a huge threat to Syrian civilians trying to return to their homes after being displaced by years of conflict. Unexploded remnants of war from conflicts in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Iraq have not been fully cleared years after the fighting ended, suggesting Syria faces a long battle against the deadly devices. According to figures gathered by the Halo Trust, an international de-mining charity currently working in Idlib province in north-western Syria, 267 people have been killed by the devices across the country since the Assad regime fell. Scores more have been killed by improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance other than landmines, such as shells or rockets, and over 200 more injured. The National visited the site of the Al Sghir home in Palmyra city, in Homs province, and Muthanna confirmed the location remotely. All that remains of the former house is a pile of grey rubble, a few teetering columns, and tangles of rebar. The three victims were buried in Palmyra, which resembles a ghost town, with much of its infrastructure and housing having been destroyed in years of conflict. 'We buried my brother the next day because there was nothing left of his body, just shreds,' said Muthanna. 'The others remained for two days under the rubble before the specialist engineers could safely dismantle the mines." In the desert around Palmyra, mine clearance teams have raked through tonnes of explosives, stored in homes and other buildings and planted in the vast expanses of surrounding land. According to two military officials in the city, between the fall of the Assad regime on December 8 and mid-January, the teams cleared at least 17 tonnes of mines from areas under their control, including 700 individual anti-personnel and anti-armour mines laid around the city's majestic Unesco world heritage site. While they believe they have largely cleared Palmyra city and its archaeological area, many more tonnes of mines remain in the desert. 'There are still more, four to five times more than this,' Amer Ahmed Jumaa, a military commander for Syria's desert, known as the Badiya, told The National from an abandoned tourist resort being used as a base for security forces. Outside, a team had just returned from a de-mining patrol with a lorry full of anti-personnel and anti-armour mines – hundreds of little green cylinders still covered in sand and mud from the desert. The National sent photographs to an expert formerly of the British military, who identified Iranian YM-1B, Soviet PMN-2 anti-personnel mines, and a Soviet TM-57 anti-tank mine among them. 'After we defuse the mines, we put them in places where we destroy them permanently,' Omar Ismail, head of the local mine disposal team, told The National. Twice in 24 hours in Palmyra, large booms rang out across the desert from what appeared to be ordnance exploding in controlled detonations. Alongside the mines, Palmyra suffered severe destruction to infrastructure and housing, and the threat of unexploded ordnance is another reason why few of its pre-2011 population of more than 100,000 have returned. The city was occupied by ISIS on and off between 2015 and 2017, when it was retaken by pro-Assad forces, who fled when his regime collapsed in December. Mr Ismail learnt de-mining tactics, including how to use mine detectors, from specialists in Idlib, in a pocket of territory that rebels retained control of before the Assad regime fell. 'We got good expertise from them and we moved to work so that our role would be to protect civilians first, which means securing residential areas and humanitarian corridors, of course that's first,' he told The National. The military officials in Palmyra believe that pro-Assad, Iran-backed militias and regime forces that held the city until December laid mines around sites used as military bases. 'They planted mines to protect themselves from any attack they anticipated, and to prevent civilians from approaching them,' Mr Ismail said. 'We, as an engineering team, remove the mines properly, according to our experience and specialised work.' The perimeter of Palmyra's ancient ruins was mined to prevent vehicles entering the area, he believes. 'As vehicles approached the heritage site, the mines would perhaps detonate,' he said. 'The anti-personnel mines, meanwhile, were around the heritage site and in places where the regime and the Iranian militias had a presence.' A significant problem in Syria's desert is ensuring that livestock rearers are able to safely roam the expanses with their animals – a way of life that necessitates extra precautions. 'For the Bedouin people, the shepherd, we have put in place [guards] around some zones so people cannot enter until the engineering team comes and dismantles the mines, and then the desert people can enter,' said Mr Jumaa. Mr Jumaa said his team, which is part of the new Ministry of Defence, was well-equipped and trained to deal with the colossal scale of de-mining necessary, and was not receiving help from any foreign organisation. 'Honestly, we have a team that is carrying out its duty.' he said. He answered with a tut, indicating 'no', when asked if his men needed extra support. That assessment may have been premature. Two weeks after The National visited Palmyra, another local military official passed on news that Mr Ismail had been badly injured during a de-mining operation in the desert. One of his team members was killed. For people like Mohammed Al Sghir, Syria needs more help to rid its landscapes of mines. 'There are bodies responsible for mines, but the scale of the mines is huge, they are spread across huge expanses in Palmyra and the desert,' said Muthanna. "Other countries need to provide support – awareness about mines, equipment, specialists, civil defence." Many Syrians want to return to their homes, but the risk of unexploded ordnance is still too high, Muthanna added. 'Death is still planted everywhere.'
The National
31-01-2025
- Politics
- The National
How Syria's minefields jeopardise hope for a better life after war's end
The scars that disfigure Syria after 14 years of civil war are wider than its minefields. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of towns and villages across the country have been destroyed or abandoned in one of the Middle East's grimmest conflicts. For 10 miles as you approach Aleppo, Syria's ancient second city and World Heritage Site, you pass through a wasteland of destruction: factories, elegant villas and modest homes all pummelled by war, abandoned and then stripped clean by the former regime. Those who survived, such as Rami Al Qasim, a Syrian farmer, face big problems. Outside his house, he stands at the top of a wall of earth overlooking a field that is about the size of 10 football pitches. Behind him are trenches and foxholes dug by troops of Bashar Al Assad's regime next to his largely destroyed house. Discarded cigarette packs, empty pill bottles and holes punched in the walls to create firing positions have been left behind by the troops who fled in December. Rami has the misfortune to own a farm on what was, until last month, the front line between the Syrian military and the opposition forces who overthrew the 50-year Assad dictatorship. He returned after the fighting to find his fields planted with landmines. 'This is good land," he says. 'It gave us a good living. We can use the income from the land to rebuild. But we cannot plant the land with mines laid across it.' His field is part of a chain of minefields laid for hundreds of kilometres along the front lines that ran across northern Syria separating the regime and the opposition-held enclaves in Idlib and Aleppo governorates. Rami's neighbour hired "a man with a metal detector" to search his field but he stepped on a mine and was killed, the neighbour injured. Fruitlessly, Rami has tried to set fire to plastic waste – hoping to burn the dried grass in the field and detonate the mines. The man with the metal detector is one of several hundred victims of landmines and abandoned ordnance since Al Assad's overthrow. While there are no official statistics, global landmine clearance organisation The Halo Trust is monitoring reports and has compiled a list of about 280 casualties – including 27 children killed – by explosive ordnance since Al Assad fled. As with Afghanistan in 2021, and seen in countless other conflicts, there is always a sharp rise in civilian casualties from explosives when fighting ends and people are desperate to return home. The Halo Trust has been working in Syria for eight years, until now in opposition-held areas. It is the only organisation clearing minefields safely for farmers like Rami. Its teams also destroy individual explosives reported by local people. It is currently dealing with 10 times the number of call-out requests than before the revolution late last year. The Assad military and its allies would strip out electrical wiring and window frames from abandoned homes to sell for scrap. Grey galvanised water tanks litter the roadsides. They were taken from homes, filled with sand and used with oil drums to build defences around military outposts. It was a scavenging state, cannibalising its own people to survive. In central Aleppo, following Friday prayers last week, there was a carnival atmosphere around the city's enormous citadel. Overlooked by bombed-out buildings, families promenaded wrapped in the new flag of the revolution, and young men and a drummer began an impromptu dance at the steps of the ancient fortress. The city's new rulers, from Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) keep a low profile, there is only one checkpoint on the way into the city and two or three young men with Heckler & Koch MP5 machineguns slung on their backs mingle with the crowds at the citadel. Most of the ancient Aleppo souq, with its priceless heritage of medieval khans and hammams, is closed, some of the accessible lanes piled with rubble from the waves of fighting that shattered the city from 2012 to 2016, when the regime retook the city. Some sections have been rebuilt but in Aleppo, Homs and even Damascus, the regime was clearly unconcerned about reconstruction. In the centre of Aleppo there is life at ground level – streets with taxis, bustling shopfronts and markets full of people. But look up and virtually every building is blackened, pock-marked and vacant. Dusty mannequins dressed in the fashions of a decade ago stand in abandoned shop windows. The contrast with what were opposition-held areas in Idlib is stark. Modern shopping malls and restaurants have been built on the main roads. While there are still huge, tented camps of displaced people, there are also newly built luxury housing developments. Coaches carrying curious Syrian shoppers, most of them women from Hama and other bomb-damaged cities further south, have started to appear at the malls in the north-west. To get there they travel up the M5, Syria's much fought-over main artery. For a stretch of 100km to 150km, the towns and villages on either side are abandoned wrecks. Rebuilding Syria will take decades. But that reconstruction can't start until the explosives littering the land are made safe. One day last week in the village of Luf, south of the depopulated city of Saraqib, a Halo team was called out to look at a 220mm Urgan rocket carrying a thermobaric – or fuel air explosive – payload. Villagers approached the technical team about another explosive device. Less than 1km away, Halo found six cluster bombs, primed and still in their canister, too dangerous to move. The bombs were a mere 50m from the tents of a displaced family. Another report came in of four artillery shells dumped by a quarry, but on the way to investigate, the team passed nine 23mm high explosive incendiary projectiles – used to bring down helicopters – sitting on a rock next to a ploughed field, presumably placed there by the farmer who found them. On the way out of the village some children flagged down the Halo vehicle to tell them about an artillery shell they found a week earlier in an abandoned house. The team hands out business cards with their call-out number wherever they go so people can report more ordnance. 'In these frontline and fought-over areas we are seeing unprecedented levels of explosives contamination,' said Feras Khleifat, operations manager for Halo Syria. 'In houses, in gardens and the fields of returning people, it is everywhere. And these people are desperate to get the items moved so they can start planting in the spring. When they hear the sound of us doing a safe detonation, they appear out of nowhere to tell us about another explosive. 'Some of the people are moving devices themselves or hiring someone who claims to know what they're doing," he added. "This is behind a lot of the accidents. But there is also a lot of poverty and many people, especially young boys, who are looking for scrap metal are also being killed and injured.' As well as clearing explosives, Halo's risk education teams tour the frontline villages teaching adults and children about the devices of which they need to beware. In classrooms they use songs and puppets to teach the youngest to report anything they find. They also stop for an impromptu session in a field with children tending sheep and goats – herder communities that travel across this contaminated land are particularly vulnerable. Halo, made famous when Princess Diana visited a minefield in Angola in 1997, works in more than 30 conflict-affected countries around the world but its Syria programme had been one of its smallest until now. The frozen nature of the conflict made it difficult to attract international donors to fund the training of local people and grow the clearance teams. Halo is hopeful that the swift and surprising fall of the Assad regime brings a rapid response from international donors. It is desperately needed in the face of an explosive humanitarian catastrophe in Syria's wrecked landscape. Paul McCann is Halo's global head of media
